Posts Tagged ‘turmeric-plus’

The state of my health greatly disappoints me, it is still good but a disappointment. 9 years ago I began my cheewajit diet with tremendous results. I went to a natural health clinic with migraine and reflux problems, and the clinic immediately told me I had GERD and to do the diet. With the cheewajit my weight dropped to 85 kg – BMI 80kg, and I began feeling good because of the diet. I was JimCarrey-esque with my elation over the benefits of healthy eating.

About 4 years ago things changed. I began experiencing regular flus that were a combination of hormone issues – andropause, and a lung condition. Over the last two years my weight has increased to 90 kg although it seems to be stable at that. Because I was unable to get my weight down, I gave up a little and began eating butter and cheese. I have always liked cheese, and even when my diet was going well I ate the occasional pizza with no problems. I started with the butter and cheese 3 years ago, and stopped because of adverse effects. Two months ago I started with the butter and cheese again, and developed reflux problems again.

When I was teaching sleep became a problem. It began with stress, and I would recognise the source of the lack of sleep through the swirling mind-chatter. In later years I was meditating and sleep was better but in the end I lost sleep yet the mind was still. When I was eating cheese three years ago I also had a sleep problem, and didn’t really come to terms with it.

Good sleep is a measure of good mind, energy and body routines – eating well, doing chi gung and meditating. However I negate that because in retirement I prefer staying up late. I know sleeping between 11.00 pm and 2 am is good for your health – I call them melatonin hours, and often I have no melatonin hours. This is not sensible.

But I have now determined the source of the sleep problem that occurred during later teaching and since – GERD. Obviously if I have the reflux then I am not going to sleep, but when my digestion system was in a mess I can see that as being a source of the lack of sleep.

Recently, both three years ago and now, I will go to bed late and tired. I would lie down and my mind would start thinking – not chattering but thinking. I associated it with not enough study and writing to begin with, but it happened when I was doing both. The problem was GERD, not the actual reflux coming into the mouth but the unsettled digestive system. Maybe I had experienced some reflux during the night and the body was not happy with this.

Once I began to realise it was the re-emergence of reflux, I angled my bed; now my head is raised sufficiently that the reflux will not happen with gravity. But that is only the beginning.

When I first thought digestion was an issue, I considered pH balance. For three or so weeks I have been using lemon water knowing that has an alkalising effect. I now also think the citric contributed to reflux. But I haven’t given up with alkaline water as I make water with baking soda in it. I still have to work out a balance between the alkaline water and normal water for my water intake.

Previously I have used a turmeric-plus drink, and I let this drop. The drink in brown-rice milk, two spoons of ACV, 2 teaspoons of turmeric and a bit of black pepper, honey to taste, and sometimes chia seeds, garlic or ginger. I started this again and it helped. I now want to make two of these my daily routine.

I like cheese, and I think I can bring it back into my eating but it has to be controlled – I don’t know how well I can do that as I have cheese cravings.

What disappoints me about all of this is that it is never a solved problem. Diet helped and I felt Carrey-esque good. I even thought it was the end of health problems. Four years ago when health issues returned I was annoyed – now I am 64. The lung problem is permanent – it is ageing in me. GERD is also an ageing problem. When the reflux stopped, I would occasionally feel GERD stuff but not reflux. That seemed to go but it hasn’t. I have no choice, I have to be constantly vigilant of it.

Health awareness, that is the point of this return of reflux. Decisions I made concerning my diet are not set in stone, nor am I in a Carrey state where health will always be with me. My body ages. It has suffered damage in life, both naturally, by genetic inheritance and by poor treatment. This cannot be ignored. Living with my health is a matter of constant questioning, and carrying out routines. I have probiotics back – kimchee and kombucha tea, I felt good about that. I also mentioned the turmeric milk routine – I felt good about routines. But then reflux. There has to be constant health awareness. Apart from questioning eating routines there is the meditation, chi gung and physical exercise. As I get older I see these as being daily requirements – certainly meditation and chi gung; the meditation should be twice daily for spiritual reasons. I sometimes feel weak, and give up on these in part. That cannot be – constant awareness of mind, energy and body is essential.